In the film “Rounders,” Matt Damon’s former poker genius character lists the “cardinal rule”: Always leave yourself outs. It sounds much simpler than it is. The natural impulse when you lose one hand is to try and compensate the next quality hand you’re dealt. The addictive nature of gambling and the desperate mental impact of losing is what makes it so dangerous. In short, cutting your losses is extremely difficult and a loss only makes you more likely to attempt a wider gamble. That’s why you leave yourself outs, to take the long-term view of the situation.

The Nets, unfortunately, did not leave themselves outs.

ESPN reports that if Dwight Howard is traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Nets will be forced to shop Deron Williams for a trade to avoid losing him in free agency for nothing.

If Howard is traded to the Lakers before the deadline, sources say New Jersey would then be forced to explore its D-Will trade options, knowing that Williams would be a virtual lock to leave come July. If Orlando keeps Howard or deals him anywhere else but L.A. or Dallas before the deadline, thus keeping alive its dream of pairing the two in Brooklyn next fall, New Jersey will wait.

The Nets, in other words, would have to be all the way out of the Howard Sweepstakes before abandoning their plans, having sacrificed so much last February (Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and two first-round picks) just to get D-Will.

This is no big shocker. You can’t just enter into free agency hoping Williams, who never specifically wanted to be with the Nets, having seen them fail to get him help in both free agency and through the Howard trade, will re-sign. And they surrendered such a massive set of assets for him that to get nothing out of it would be devastating. But it does put itself out there as a fact that Nets ownership is aware there is a very strong possibility that they will not acquire Howard. They’re still looking out to see what they have to do if they call and their hand comes up short.

Now, there are plenty of reasons for Nets fans not to be concerned. Deron Williams had his best game of the season Friday night against Phoenix, so perhaps it was simply injuries and not his mental outlook that has lead to him seeming so despondent in his body language. They have time to get Brook Lopez healthy and to increase his trade value to try and woo a third team into the mix to send veterans to Orlando, which reportedly is what they’re after. The Nets can right the ship and make Jersey/Brooklyn a more attractive option to convince Howard to push for them. And with Andrew Bynum playing as well as he is, it’s entirely possible the Lakers won’t want to trade him and disrupt their chemistry. Oh, and despite the ESPN report, Williams himself said it was 80% sure that he would re-sign. And athletes never say one thing and do another in free agency.

The Nets are trying to be sure they’re prepared for the worst. But the reality is that if all this gets them absolutely nothing to show for it, or even a diminished package for Williams, it will still sent the franchise back for years.

Tom Benson, the now 90-year-old owner of the New Orleans Pelicans and the NFL’s Saints, a few years back changed around the succession of control of the team after his passing — his wife Gayle will take control. Rita Benson LeBlanc, Benson’s granddaughter and former handpicked successor, sued saying Benson had been manipulated. After meeting privately with Benson, a judge ruled that while Benson suffered some “cognitive impairment” he was capable of making his own decisions and that Gayle remained the successor.

Benson has been sued multiple times since then, including by former Saints employee Rodney Henry, and the then-89-year-old Benson was deposed in that case last year.

During another set of questions, apparently aimed at establishing how close Benson and Henry had been, Benson was shown a photo of the two men with Pelicans star Anthony Davis.

“Who is this?” Williams asked.

“It’s Rodney and a basketball player,” Benson said. “Oh, hell, I forget his name. Let me — he’s a great player for us. Tell me his name, and I will tell you yes or no.”

When asked “is it Anthony Davis,” Benson said yes. The man is 90, I’m not sure that we should expect much. He had the foresight to bring in people to run his businesses — including his sports teams — and set up a line of succession for when he does pass. Smart moves.

Would Benson’s mental state impact potential changes coming to the Pelicans? Probably not. New Orleans’ GM Dell Demps bet big on going big in a league trending smaller, pairing Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. If that doesn’t work out, plenty of people around the league expect a house cleaning on the basketball side with the Pelicans. Benson’s mental state, whatever it may be, does not impact that.

The deposition leak came from an anonymous source (and anonymous email account, the paper verified the document before publishing). Who leaked it? It may be nearly impossible to find out, but only one side benefits from all this becoming public. And it’s not Benson.

A few years back in Philadelphia, the athletic K.J. McDaniels was a highlight factory and looked like a guy who could develop into a role player on the wing in the NBA.

Except, he never actually developed. Houston gave him a chance (three years at a total of $10 million), and it didn’t work out, then last season Brooklyn had him for 20 games, but they decided to move on.

Now Toronto is going to give him a chance, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

McDaniels’ agent later confirmed the news. This is a training camp, make-good contract for McDaniels. But unlike a lot of those contracts being handed out around this time, there is space on the Raptors roster for a player or two.

Before the KJ McDaniels partial, Toronto had $116.6M in guaranteed salary with 13 players + the $100K partial of Alfonzo McKinnie.

McDaniels will compete with Alfonzo McKinnie, Kennedy Meeks, and Kyle Wiltjer for one of the final roster spots in Toronto. Of that group, I’d most likely want to keep McDaniels because of the shot blocking and his potential — but his outside shot has to improve.

The Raptors can carry 15 on the roster and very possibly will until at least Jan. 10, which is the date these partially guaranteed deals become fully guaranteed for the season. Toronto is flirting with the tax line, and ownership is not going to want to pay the tax for this team, so if they do carry 15 they likely will cut it to 14 by that date.

The #DriveByDunkChallenge has been a fun distraction this summer. If you don’t know what it is, it essentially involves NBA players jumping out of their cars to dunk on regular folks on community basketball hoops.

There are still some serious doubts about whether the Celtics will be able to unseat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, but perhaps they won’t need to wait for long. Rumors are starting to trickle in about LeBron James leaving Ohio, so maybe by the time we are used to seeing Hayward in Celtics green next season they will have less competition out east.